The Missing Piece
by tilinelson2
Summary: The story talks about Marlena  Maia  from PSIII after she was kidnapped by the dragon and returned home. The story focus on reflections on her mind after that most recent events of her life.


The blonde girl looked the sea through the window.

She had just finished combing her long hair, but just for passing time. She couldn't go anywhere with the ongoing war, so she had to spend her time reading books, doing minor handworks, playing the harpsichord or taking care of herself. But most of the time she stayed looking the sea carrying large snow blocks to the sand, where they stayed melting, while thinking about her life. She had a lot to think about, since her life was in a huge turmoil in the last months, and the sea was the key to her past, forgotten in the depths of her own mind.

The war was going full force outside, and she was forced to stay inside the castle, not only because she was the heir princess to the kingdom, but also because she was, in a certain way, responsible for the war, though she didn't do anything herself. At least nothing that she could remember of, but actually there weren't many things about her own life she remembered.

She looked to the mirror and saw her image. Her pale ruby blue eyes were filled with sorrow. Her beautiful face couldn't hide her sorrow. She was alone, carrying the world upon her tiny shoulders. She couldn't stop thinking "Why did all these things happen because of me? What have I done?" But she couldn't find answers for those questions.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. The girl stood up and opened the door. She could see the humble smile of Rheia. The servant was a woman in her fifties, gray-haired and with age signs clearly stamped in her face. She had a lot of motherly affection to the girl because she had always cared for the girl as the daughter she have never had. The girl didn't remember anything about her prior to the last two weeks, when she was abducted from her "former" home and taken to this castle she was in, but she liked Rheia because she was one of the few persons that tried to lighten her burden.

- Princess Marlena, excuse me. The lunch will be served in a few minutes and your father, the king, demands your presence. He is worried about you. Will you come?

The girl closed her eyes for a moment, thinking, and answered:

- I'm not in the mood to face them. I would rather be left alone.  
- Oh, my dear Maia... - Rheia exclaimed in a sincere tone of compassion – I know you are not in the mood, but your father really worries about you. You are his only daughter and he loves you more than you will ever know.  
- Yes, Rheia, I acknowledge that, but everything is so confusing and painful to me… - Marlena stopped talking, with the last words choking with the tears coming from her blue eyes.  
- Yes, my Lady. I will say to your father that you are still getting ready and will come in fifteen minutes, right? - Rheia said so blinking to the girl, with her heart torn apart by seeing the kaleidoscopic tones of cyan and blue shining from the girl´s wet eyes.  
- Thank you so much, Rheia. I will be there in fifteen minutes.

Rheia went back downstairs thinking about the princess. She knew that the princess was facing a real hard time, but above all she was glad she was alive and well. The life was always so harsh to the girl. She had lost her mom while still a little child and since then has lived alone with her father. She hadn't any friends and only a few acquaintances, because of her position as princess heiress forbade closer contact with common people. Then one day she disappeared mysteriously. Extensive searching was promoted by her father, the king, but they were fruitless and the only daughter of the king was then presumed dead. The whole kingdom mourned with the king the loss of "the most beautiful flower of the whole world", till Prince Lyle from Shusoran, a nearby city of the kingdom, who was Marlena´s cousin, discovered she was alive and living in a far kingdom. He secretly kidnapped her and brought her home. She was back home, but uneasy, because she had lost her memory after she disappeared, so her home, her family and acquaintances were strangers to her. Worse than that, her kidnapping sparked a war between both kingdoms.

Marlena closed the door and let her body fall on her bed, belly up, with arms stretched by her sides and her golden hair scattered in the bed. She abandoned her body as if she was abandoning her problems too. And she started wondering why all those things were happening. Her memory was lost. She only remembered that she was found in a distant beach, unconscious and almost lifeless, by a kind man. The man had taken her home and provided for her until she was fully recovered from the accident. The man has been kind to her and fell in love with her. It was nothing new to her, because, though she could not remember her past, it was like it always happened with the young men. She was considered the most beautiful girl of the entire realm. But she was alone, had no past, no one to care for her and no one that even know her. And that man was kind, good natured and honest. He was so anxious to marry her that, without other acquaintances beyond people from this man's home and no knowledge of the past, she resigned to his affections and accepted his proposal.

She had discovered that his benefactor was Prince Rhys of Landen and she even considered herself lucky, but there were strange things going on. First, their language was the same as hers, but had many different words and expressions, almost like a different dialect, making her sure that his people were not her people. Also, the prince conducted an extensive research in the nearby cities and kingdoms and no one has ever heard about her. Worse than that, the only other people known in their world besides the Orakians was the evil and mythic Layan people, which were considered non-humans, so she was clearly not Layan as well.

Before her marriage, she met a very beautiful woman, who presented herself as Princess Lena of Satera. She made Marlena promise that she would never talk about their conversation to Prince Rhys. She explained that, though she didn't hold any grudge against the girl, she didn't know why Rhys has decided to marry Marlena, once Lena's and Rhys' parents had already arranged a marriage between their sons. This revelation was shocking to Marlena and she didn't know what to do, but princess Lena almost obliged Marlena to carry on, as this marriage was her former fiancé will and Lena would not marry him knowing he loved another woman.

Things became bleaker when she was kidnapped by a monster in the day of her marriage and taken to a strange place. There she learned that the flying monster was a Layan creature, the historical enemies of the Orakians, Rhys' people. But the speaking dragon, as soon as he reached a castle in a far away place, place that Orakians believed didn't exist anymore, metamorphosed into a man, that was not only a common man, but also resembled her in some ways. There he told Marlena that she was Layan as well, princess and heir to the Layan kingdom. He told her his name was Lyle and that he was her cousin and Prince of Shusoran, a nearby Layan city. Since then, her mind was in a complete confusion. She had lost her memories and she didn't recover almost anything after returning home. There were so many different versions that she didn't know who to trust. Why should an Orakian prince marry a completely strange girl, when he had already a marriage arranged with an Orakian princess? Why did no one opposed to the marriage? If Lyle had means to become a dragon and fly to Orakian realm, why did he wait until the day of the marriage? If they had previously knowledge of the Orakians, why didn't they keep contact with the Orakians?

Trying to answer these questions, Princess Marlena studied a lot about the past and present of Layan and Orakian people. She read many books, talked to many wise men and she only have found more questions. Legends of the past talked about a green world, orbiting a binary star system along with a brown and a white planet. But her planet did not orbit any star, did not have different seasons, with places permanently under the same climate. They did not have brother planets orbiting along and their planet was moving straight towards "who knows where". Anyone could notice the movements of the faint lights of distant stars coming and going through the sky in a straight line, proving that they were not orbiting a star. They didn't know why there was day and night without a star nearby, but there was day and night with the same duration of the past legendary records. Legends of the past talked about machines that transported people among the planets of their solar system, but, though they didn't have technology to make space flights, they knew that the horizon blended with the sky making a concave frontier with the outer space that could not be crossed. They knew as well that there were underground caves linking their world to other "worlds", like Orakian "world", where they had another flat land with the same concave boundaries. This went against the legends and ancient histories, that talked of a round world, no horizon boundaries and space travels.

Bits of these thoughts and random past images were circling princess Marlena's mind in a kaleidoscopic turmoil as she was lain in her bed. She was completely confused, in a state of semi-conscience, drowned in millions of thoughts when a sudden thud woke her up from her mental turmoil. It was a block of snow falling from the rooftops that has made the noise and it made Marlena become aware of herself again. She looked her image in the mirror, as she was still lain on the bed. She could see a pretty and innocent girl and that was all that she was. But at the same time, she was the center of lots of things going on in her world, and she couldn't understand them. She remembered of the lunch and decided to prepare herself to face her father. After all, liking it or not, there was no way out. She had to be strong and face the world. Resolutely, she stood up and arranged herself for the lunch. She wanted to be as beautiful as she could be to show to the world that she was a strong woman. She was indeed a strong woman and she wanted to appear to the world that way.

When she was about to leave her room, Rheia gently knocked the door and called:

- Are you ready for lunch, princess?  
- Yes, dear Rheia, I am ready. - She replied, while opening the door, with an assuring voice.

Rheia couldn't prevent smiling at the pompous air of the girl, who was crying a short while ago. She was happy about the change in the girl's mood and hoped it would stick longer than the usual.

Princess Marlena was happy also, with her new mood and her strong looks. She was almost convincing herself that everything was really as she was trying to make it appear to be, but a thought suddenly came to her mind and restarted the internal turmoil. Though she did her best to keep her strong image to Rheia and the people she would meet in the lunch, there was a missing piece in everything, the most important one. If she could recover this missing piece, maybe she could understand everything. But the missing piece was lost with her memories. "How was it possible for me to appear in Landen shores?"

And the mystery remained stronger than ever inside the blonde girl's mind.


End file.
